AUSTRALIA
Rapper Yung Filly charged
A British YouTuber and rapper known as Yung Filly has been charged with raping and choking a woman in a hotel room following a performance. The 29-year-old, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, on Thursday was freed on bail after a court appearance in Perth on several charges, with police alleging his crimes were committed on Sept. 28. Barrientos was arrested in Brisbane on Tuesday, a police statement said. The Colombia-born entertainer was accused of assaulting a woman in her 20s in a hotel room after he had performed in a Perth nightclub. He is charged with four counts of rape, three counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count of impeding the woman’s normal breathing or circulation by applying pressure to her neck, police said.
Photo: AP
NEW ZEALAND
Minister defends captain
Minister for Defence Judith Collins on Thursday said that online remarks by “vile ... misogynistic ... armchair admirals” about the captain of a navy ship that ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa were false. “Seriously, it’s 2024,” Collins told reporters. “What the hell’s going on here?” After days of comments on social media directed at the sex of Commander Yvonne Gray, Collins urged the public to “be better.” Female members of the military had also faced verbal abuse in the street in New Zealand since the ship — one of nine in the country’s navy — was lost on Sunday, Collins said. All 75 people on board evacuated to safety after the vessel ran aground on the reef it was surveying off Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island. The cause of the incident is not known. “The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship’s captain, a woman with 30 years’ naval experience who on the night made the call to get her people to safety,” Collins said. One of the posters was a truck driver from Melbourne, Australia, she added. “I think that he should keep his comments to people who drive trucks rather than people who drive ships,” Collins said.
Photo: AP
UNITED STATES
Ethel Kennedy dies
Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated, and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter, died on Thursday, her family said. She was 96. “It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III wrote on X. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week. Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” the family statement said. President Joe Biden called her “an American icon — a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service.” The Kennedy matriarch, mother to Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr, David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory, was one of the last remaining members of a family generation that included former president John F. Kennedy. She was by Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Her brother-in-law John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, less than five years earlier.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump